Many in my generation see the nuclear issue as something from a bygone era. But the nuclear threat is alive and well and so is government spending for it. In 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act allotted $16 billion for nuclear weapons. Why do we scoff at the price tag of investing in our planet’s future, but don’t give a second glance to spending $16 billion a year on nuclear weapons?
Why does the Defense Department need $16 billion for a technology that has the potential to not just engage in targeted attacks on enemies, but destroy humanity by launching us into a nuclear winter? The nuclear weapons we have today are 3,000 times as powerful as the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The continued investment in building nuclear weapons is launching us on a path of destruction that we don’t consider because it’s not in the news.
Most Americans don’t know that the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force last year, but the U.S. is not a signatory to the treaty. It is time for local communities to ask their elected officials to make pledges to support the TPNW.
